Invited by the School of Life Sciences, Professor Hartmut Michel, director of Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Germany and 1988 Nobel Chemistry Prize winner visited USTC for three days. Professor Hartmut Michel was awarded the title of ‘Honorary Professor’ and is looked forward to paying more attention to the development of the School of Life Science. The ceremony was held on September 12th at the lecture hall on the first floor of the School of Life Sciences and Chen ChuSheng, Vice President of USTC, presented Professor Hartmut Michel with a letter of appointment. Prof. Shi Yunyu chaired the academic report entitled "Membrane proteins: Importance, Structures, Mechanisms" by Prof. Hartmut Michel. More than 200 teachers and students participated in the seminar and discussed the related scientific issues.

Professor Hartmut Michel is an internationally renowned structural biologist who has long been involved in the research of important membrane proteins. He has made outstanding achievements in photosynthetic reaction center, aerobic respiration and cytochrome C oxidase, and has received several important awards, including ‘Biophysics Award of the American Physical Society’ (1986, shared with Professor J. Deisenhofer), the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Shared with Prof. J. Deisenhofer, Prof. R. Huber), the Johnsons Foundation Award(1995), the Peter Mitchell Medal from the European Society of Biomedical Sciences (2004), and the David Keilin Biochemical Society Medal (2007). Professor Michel is also an academician of the German Academy of Sciences, a member of the Royal Society, a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the US Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.

Since the early 1980s, Professor Michel has been enthusiastic in promoting the construction and development of biological research in China, and has visited China for nearly 30 times. During his three-day visit to USTC, Prof. Michel has visited the public experiment platform of the School of Life Sciences, Integrated Imaging Center, and other research platforms, visited the Single Molecule Microscopy Laboratory in the School of Physics, and had panel discussion with a number of professors from the School of Life Sciences to explore opportunities for cooperation and development. Professor Michel said that as an honorary professor of USTC, he will continue to strengthen the academic exchanges between USTC and and Europe, promote the development of USTC research in the field of structural biology, advance the communication between USTC and the European structural biology community, and boost USTC’s international academic reputation.

 (HUANG Jun, School of Life Sciences)